Tapping in New Brunswick

[Rob Walton]

Have had the taps out for about 3 weeks or so and finally getting a decent run. Hope to boil sap tonight.





2013 - 5 taps. 37 litres or sap = 750 ml of dark syrup.
2014 - 21 taps. ??

[dscanuck]

I've had my taps out almost a month. Still not enough to boil though. I keep my sap in a food grade garbage can in a fridge in my garage that acts like a freezer. I keep freezing down the water and throwing out the ice thus concentrating the sap. Probably do a boil down next weekend, as long as this week keep producing good sap that is.

This is my second year, last year I go about 10L of syrup out of 9 trees.

[Rob Walton]

Collected 25 litres of sap today/tonight. Started the boil tonight. Will bury the remainder in the snow to finish tomorrow night hopefully. I noticed I have split a few trees when I was tapping, have to be more careful next year. That is good idea about getting down to concentrate.

[Run Forest Run!]

dscanuck, I did the same thing with 15L that I got during one mini-run the 3rd week of March. After three or four times of tossing the ice what had started out as 15L @ 2.5% became 8L @ 5.1%. Those 8L spent an afternoon slowly simmering on the stove and became 355ml of delicious light syrup. (It's almost gone now. ;) )

[dscanuck]

dscanuck, I did the same thing with 15L that I got during one mini-run the 3rd week of March. After three or four times of tossing the ice what had started out as 15L @ 2.5% became 8L @ 5.1%. Those 8L spent an afternoon slowly simmering on the stove and became 355ml of delicious light syrup. (It's almost gone now. ;) )


I've never tried straight on the stove. Always built a fire/cinder block pit. But, with all the snow, I think I just might do that. I dug out a 4 ft by 4ft square in the snow but IDK.

The temperature shot up to 14 yesterday, but has since retreated to 6 but we're getting 50mm of rain today............ I think our season is going to be super short this year, weatherman is calling for just below freezing and a high of 7C for the next 2 days but after that, above freezing at night and above during the day......

[Run Forest Run!]

I would normally never consider boiling sap on the stove, but in this case I didn't have very much and was willing to let it slowly simmer for the afternoon. There was never a rapid boil on the pot so the kitchen didn't fill with steam. That sap had been hanging around for over a week and I didn't want it to go to waste.

[ihuntbear]

had my taps in for a month..only had enough to sweeten the pans so far...not a good year..with all this rain today it should be running until the wind starts. forecasting 70 km winds later this afternoon..hopefully have enough to boil by the week end

[dscanuck]

had my taps in for a month..only had enough to sweeten the pans so far...not a good year..with all this rain today it should be running until the wind starts. forecasting 70 km winds later this afternoon..hopefully have enough to boil by the week end

Same, the wind was brutal, next two days (today included) are supposed to be good but after that it doesn't drop below freezing at night so that pretty much ends it there.

Hopefully today and tomorrow will give me enough to have a half decent boil. A far cry from last year's three boils and over 400L of sap.

[dscanuck]

Like I predicted, today was a great day (for this year) got about 20l from 8 taps. Tonight and tomorrow are supposed be the last nights it drops below 0 here in Fredericton so looks like ill boil it all on Sunday.

[Run Forest Run!]

That's fantastic dscanuck. I hope you have a barrel load to boil on Sunday.

[Rob Walton]

so far have gathered 28 litres and boiled it down to 750 ml have dark amber syrup. Taste delicious!!
I haven't had the run today that dscanuck has had but I noticed yesterday that I had fruit flies coming out of the taps. Anyone know why? I hope to have another 20 litres to boil this weekend then will have to pull the taps. Time to get ready to head to the Dominican for some fun in the sun!

[dscanuck]

so far have gathered 28 litres and boiled it down to 750 ml have dark amber syrup. Taste delicious!!
I haven't had the run today that dscanuck has had but I noticed yesterday that I had fruit flies coming out of the taps. Anyone know why? I hope to have another 20 litres to boil this weekend then will have to pull the taps. Time to get ready to head to the Dominican for some fun in the sun!

I don't think the south of the province has had it as good as the North. They get that below the freezing mark that we just don't hit except for an hour or so.

[dscanuck]

9643

The haul from year, just over 2L.

[Run Forest Run!]

9643

The haul from year, just over 2L.

Looks great! You did really well considering that the weather didn't do us any favours.

[Rob Walton]

Another 11 litres of sap gathered today. Thought about pulling the taps this weekend but the forecast looks like it might be good later this week. Next weekend will be my last for sure. Hope everyone had a decent run this weekend.

[dscanuck]

Hey Rob,

Same here!!! I did a boil on Sat and was going to pull my taps as well but left them in over night on Sat and collected more sap on Sunday, enough to make me go another week and also do my last boil over Easter weekend. Even two of the trees that didn't produce started running so an extra weekend to gather some cooking maple syrup might be in the cards.

[Rob Walton]

well, wasn't getting any sap at all during this great stretch of weather. So did some "retapping" (right or wrong.....only time will tell). Short term it seems to be working as I have had the best run to date. Retapping was just pulling the spiles and freshening up the hole with a 1/64 larger drill bit. Lesson learnt on tapping to early.

[dscanuck]

Though to know when "too early" is. Last year the sap was running in Feb. I had a great past 2 days; collected 45L of sap. Boiling the batch on Monday.

[Redsandbar]

It has been a funny. Last year I pulled my taps on April 08 and the snow was basically gone. I was ready to pull my taps last week-end after some warm weather and no sap. I am glad I left them in as I have gotten a fair amount of sap the last few days. It looks like a nice run over night. Will likely do my last boil on Sunday.